


Borrowing secrets

by mbueno (avmin)



Series: Witching Hour [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Age Difference, Alive Vernon Boyd & Erica Reyes, Alpha Derek, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Communication, Consent, Derek Feels, Developing Relationship, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Manipulative Peter, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-05
Updated: 2013-09-05
Packaged: 2017-12-25 17:50:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/955960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avmin/pseuds/mbueno
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Secrets, magic, shapeshifters that drowned and ate people... Derek had a lot on his plate without dealing with the lies he told himself. If only his idiot pack members would stop endangering themselves needlessly, especially those who didn't have werewolf healing on their side.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Borrowing secrets

**Author's Note:**

> Written before season 3A so has nothing to do with it and is basically AU from s2 with everyone alive and back in BH (apart from Jackson). Shamelessly borrowing the magic idea from Discworld books (which are amazing) but with modifications. Also mangling mythological creatures so sorry about that. Should probably warn for OOC. Mostly Derek's 3rd person limited POV.

Derek was packing up the groceries he’d just bought when he felt someone staring at him. He didn’t react immediately because he didn’t want the observer to know that he’d been spotted. Things had been quiet after the alpha pack but Derek knew better than to expect it to last in a place like Beacon Hills. 

He finished putting the bags into the back of his car and then straightened and looked around as casually as he could. There was no one watching him but he could still feel the itch. If Stiles were here, he’d tell him that he was probably just being paranoid but he was alone. And even when Stiles said that, he always looked up what Derek asked him to anyway. The boy was one of the most frustratingly helpful people Derek had ever had the displeasure of meeting. 

He walked over to the driver’s side door and opened it, still feeling like he was being watched. He sat down and closed the door and risked another look around the parking lot. There were a few other people around but they weren’t paying attention to him. The only other living thing anywhere near him was a mangy looking cat with one eye and a general expression on its face that practically radiated pure evil. Even more so than cats usually did, anyway. 

The little hellbeast was looking at him with its single yellow eye while it licked its paw. Derek narrowed his eyes at the cat and tried to think of any creatures that could shapeshift. There were some, but he was fairly sure he could’ve recognized their smell even if they were disguised as a cat. The gray battered looking thing watching him just smelled like, well, cat. Almost offensively so. 

Maybe the Stiles voice in his head was right and he was getting a bit paranoid. It was just a cat and everyone knew that cats lived to make people who didn’t like them uncomfortable. He growled a little loud enough that the cat would be able to hear him but softly enough that none of the humans could. It was maybe a tiny blow to his dignity that the cat just gave him the most unimpressed feline look and continued grooming himself. 

Convincing himself that he hadn’t just lost to an ordinary cat, he started the car and drove off glad that the real Stiles would never ever hear of this. 

\--

This time he was running through the woods with his pack when the feeling came back. It was full moon but the night was almost over and he’d managed to burn off most of the excess energy so he was more human than wolf. The kids were beginning to tire out and their senses probably weren’t the sharpest so he could forgive them not noticing. 

He sniffed the air but couldn’t smell anything out of the ordinary. He could smell his pack and their volatile moon enhanced emotions coloring the air like bursts of fireworks. He could smell the familiar scents of the forest: the slightly damp earth, the smell of decaying leaves and other animals that had crossed the path they were on and the faint smell of the town in the distance. And he could just about pick up the scent of a single human, waiting for the pack back at the Hale house. 

He didn’t much want to think about the fact that Allison was there too but he couldn’t smell her. There were a lot of things about Stiles that he’d learned to ignore recently and he didn’t want to think of that either. 

Realizing he’d gotten sidetracked he tried to listen for something moving around them. It was possible for someone to mask their scent even from a werewolf if they knew what they were doing. The first time Stiles had tried it he’d managed to get half the pack into a blind panic because they thought he’d just vanished. When he’d turned up at their emergency pack meeting reeking or pride at his trick Derek hadn’t probably reacted in the best way possible. 

“Derek?” Isaac asked noticing his alpha’s tense stance. 

Erica and Boyd looked at him as well and then around for any threat they could’ve missed. The pack didn’t still feel as whole as it could but they were getting there, if slowly. Derek was still stung by their initial defection and they weren’t still completely convinced that he was a good alpha. But after the alpha pack it’d become clear that they all needed each other and they were working on everything else. 

He watched his betas sniff the air and turn their heads to listen for any possible threats. He knew they probably wouldn’t be able to pick up anything he couldn’t but there was always possible he’d dismissed something that would stick out to them. 

“Is there something here?” Isaac asked sounding puzzled. 

“I’m not sure,” he admitted reluctantly. 

The annoying Stiles voice in his head reminded him that honesty within the pack was a good idea and that no one expected him to be invincible. The actual Stiles had actually hit him where it hurt by asking him if he would’ve expected Laura to handle everything by herself without relying on her beta and brother. Derek had hated him for a few days because of that comment but Stiles was nothing if not persistent and he’d had to give in, in the end. 

“There’s a squirrel in that tree there,” Scott said. 

He’d smelled the squirrel, of course, but had filed the information automatically as unimportant. The forest was teeming with the little rats and they didn’t even make good hunting on full moon runs. Tasted awful, too. 

“Is it watching us?” Boyd asked sounding a little disbelieving. 

It was. There was no doubt about it but it was watching them with its beady little eyes ears twitching this way and that but otherwise not moving. 

“That’s… creepy,” Isaac said. “Are they supposed to do that?” 

It was ridiculous. It was just a squirrel and any one of them could put an end to it with a single swipe of claws or a crunch of teeth. The most it could do was bite them and give them rabies which they were immune to anyway. It was just a squirrel so how was it making four werewolves, one of which was an alpha, nervous. 

“It’s just a squirrel,” he muttered but he didn’t sound 100% convinced himself. 

Most animals didn’t like werewolves because they were so obviously predators but mostly that dislike manifested in the animals running away. He’d never really come across animals that just stared at them. But this was the second time and he knew better than to believe in coincidences without weeding out other options first. 

“Come on. We’ll go back,” he said turning towards the house where the two relatively vulnerable humans were. 

If there was a shapeshifter lurking around the town and woods that could mask even their smell from them he needed more information. More information meant going to either Deaton or Stiles or possibly both. Or Lydia, but she hadn’t exactly been keen to hang out with them after Jackson had left and Peter had decided to continue to hang around. The part of him that he was stubbornly ignoring felt just a smidgeon of petty joy that she wasn’t around to distract Stiles. 

It didn’t take them long to get back to the house and they found Allison sitting at the front with her bow next to her. Scott broke rank when he saw her and Derek resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the sappiness that followed. But he couldn’t really begrudge Scott his fixation with Allison. The alpha pack had brought more than his wayward betas back and they had an uneasy truce with Chris Argent. 

“Where’s Stiles?” he asked as he shifted back to fully human shape. 

He caught Stiles’s scent coming from inside the house and for a moment he could’ve sworn there was something odd about his heartbeat but before he could allow the slight edge of panic to worm into his head the heartbeat returned to normal and then the boy was bounding out. 

“Had a nice run?” he asked reaching down to ruffle Scott’s hair even as he was tangled up with Allison. 

“Nice enough apart from freaky squirrels,” Erica said flipping her hair. 

Stiles’ eyebrows went up and he turned to look at Derek. 

“Squirrels?” he asked just barely holding back the laughter. 

Derek could practically taste his amusement in the air. 

“Shut up,” he said giving him a red eyed glare which Stiles ignored in favor of plucking out dead leaves from Erica’s messy hair. 

Despite being the alpha and a born wolf besides, Derek found himself a little puzzled over the relationships his pack members had with each other. Scott and Allison were back together and sickeningly in love with each other. Scott and Stiles were still best friends even though they’d gone through a few speed bumps along the way when Stiles had reeked of the bitter scent of hurt and loneliness. Isaac and Scott were close, too, but he had no idea how close and in what way, exactly. Erica and Boyd were so close they bordered on co-dependency but that was understandable after everything that had happened. Erica and Stiles had gotten closer in a way that Derek knew wasn’t sexual but wasn’t the same kind of friendship the annoying boy had with Scott. He knew it probably had something to do with a shared experience of pain at the hands of the alpha pack. He’d tried to remember if his old pack had been this complicated and halfway broken but he’d been too young and too self-centered when they’d died to really remember how it’d been. 

“I need you to look up shapeshifters for me,” he said. 

There was a very brief moment when a slightly shifty look crossed Stiles’s face before it smoothed out to his usual one and Derek was immediately worried. 

“Sure,” he said. “So you’re thinking that the demon squirrel was actually someone?” 

He really didn’t appreciate being mocked but he could sort of see that he’d left himself open for that. 

“Just do it,” he growled instead wishing he could actually make Stiles believe his threats again. 

“Aye aye captain my captain,” Stiles said giving him a cheeky salute. 

Derek resisted the urge to sigh because it would just let the little bastard know he’d won this round and it wouldn’t exactly set a good example for his betas who barely respected him as it was. 

\--

“Are you seriously having a staring competition with that dog?” 

Derek blinked and looked up from where he’d been looking at the dog. Ever since the cat and the stupid squirrel he’d grown more and more suspicious of any animals that spent more than a few seconds looking at him. He’d just been making sure that the dog wasn’t planning to attack his pack. 

There was no way he was going to say any of that out loud to Stiles who looked far too amused as it was. 

“No,” he snapped. 

The only reason he was out with Stile was because the jeep had broken down again and Stiles had said he absolutely had to go get some magic books from the next town over. Derek had said that it had nothing to do with him and that he wasn’t a chauffeur but somehow he’d found himself driving the boy around anyway. It was probably because of one of those things that he didn’t much want to think about but was slowly starting to anyway. Or maybe it was just to return a favor. 

“It sure looked like it,” Stiles said tone light. 

“Did you get your books?” Derek asked instead of falling into the trap of actually trying to deny anything. 

Had he been as frustratingly obnoxious as Stiles and the rest of them when he’d been their age? He felt like he was too young to start yelling at young people to stay off his lawn but sometimes he felt a strange kind of kinship with the sour faced old men who muttered about ‘youth today’. 

“Obviously,” Stiles said hefting the books in his arms. 

They didn’t look particularly mystical but then again, Derek wasn’t the one who did the obsessive reading. He felt a bit bad about it but Stiles genuinely seemed to like researching even if he did complain about no one ever thanking him. Sometimes he did wish that he’d paid more attention to his family’s library full of supernatural lore, instead of watching baseball and wondering if he’d ever get a girlfriend. He’d never reveal it to the pack but he’d been pretty pathetic as a teenager and probably wouldn’t have handled everything that had been going on lately nearly as well as they had. 

“Still, I think he really is just a dog,” Stiles continued reaching out to pat the dog in question making its tail thump enthusiastically against the pavement. 

“I know that,” Derek said. 

“Sure you do,” Stiles said in an annoying singsong voice. “Anyway, we can go back now. I’ve got all I need.” 

Derek eyed the books. “Those for the shapeshifter research?” he asked. 

Stiles got that shifty expression again that made Derek worry. For all that he claimed to be the clever one with the plans he could do some incredibly stupid and dangerous things. A Stiles who kept secrets almost always meant something was about to go horribly wrong and that included Isaac’s surprise birthday party. It was actually an unspoken pack rule to not talk about Isaac’s surprise birthday party. 

“Yes,” he said and he wasn’t lying but that didn’t actually mean much. 

Apart from learning how to mask his scent, Stiles had become the master of telling just enough of the truth to sneak in the small lies-by-omission unnoticed. He’d also learned how to tell the truth and make it sound like he was lying and the skill had probably saved him when he’d been going head to head with one of the alphas. 

“Stiles,” Derek said in his alpha voice. 

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Don’t you ‘Stiles’ me. Yes, they are for the research you asked me to do but also for the magic research I’ve been doing on my own. You know Deaton said that he couldn’t help me more because what I do isn’t the same as what he does.” 

“I still don’t like it,” Derek grumbled. “Magic isn’t something you should be toying with.” 

He wasn’t actually sure just how powerful Stiles’s ‘spark’ was and what he could do with it but that didn’t mean he didn’t worry. He didn’t actually have much experience with magical people apart from Deaton and werewolves were naturally incompatible with magic so it made his hackles rise. Peter had always been the one who was fascinated with magic and old lore but even he couldn’t actually do magic beyond a few small tricks. His resurrection was mostly the result of the old and Lydia’s innate abilities, instead of something he himself did. 

“And that’s why I need to learn,” Stiles said sounding serious. “So I can control it instead of being controlled by it. Deaton said I probably would have never even known I had the knack for it if I hadn’t done that thing with the mountain ash. After that it was only a matter of time before I used it accidentally.” 

Just because he could see the point Stiles was making didn’t mean he had to be happy about it. 

“I don’t think you have to worry too much about the shapeshifter you think is shadowing you,” Stiles said and it sounded like he was telling the truth. “If the information I’ve found is correct then they’re not actually that powerful and they’re mostly content to make mischief.” 

Derek narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t stupid and he wasn’t obvious. 

“What are you not telling me?” he asked letting a warning growl enter his voice. “You know something.” 

For all that he was able to lie better, Stiles’ control of his facial expressions still wasn’t the best. No wonder his father had been suspicious of him when he hadn’t been aware of the whole werewolf thing when Stiles had slunk around lying and broadcasting his guilt all over his face. Now that the sheriff was aware Stiles didn’t smell so sour anymore. 

They reached the Camaro and Stiles slipped inside as easily as if it was his own car. Derek couldn’t help his eyes straying to look at long slender fingers as they practically caressed the books Stiles had on his lap. He smelled like dust and paper and ink and boy and somehow it was really distracting. He forced his eyes back to the road and squeezed the steering wheel tighter, feeling his claws grow just that little bit. 

“I’m not trying to hide anything from you,” the boy said looking out of the window at the rolling landscape. 

“I can hear you lying,” Derek pointed out feeling a little insulted. 

“Well, okay, so I’m not hiding much from you,” Stiles amended having the grace to look a little sheepish. “But I swear it’s nothing bad.” That wasn’t a lie but it didn’t mean it was actually true, just that Stiles thought it was. “It’s just something I’m trying to figure out. You know how important it is to be absolutely certain you can do something.” 

To be honest, the whole concept of belief and magic went a little over his head because he’d long ago accepted that just because you wanted something didn’t mean you were going to get it. Oh, he knew that belief alone wasn’t enough and that you needed a ‘spark’ or something like that, but he knew it was still important. After the fire and Kate he’d had trouble believing in anything and he was only now getting better. It had been pointed out to him that his issues could get the pack killed if he didn’t do something about them and that being the alpha was all well and good but he should maybe start acting like one, too. Of all the people to tell him that, Lydia had truly come as a surprise. She’d also told him to go to therapy or something so that he could find a healthy way to deal with his hang ups but… 

“I still don’t like it,” he said. “And I don’t want you making contact with the possible shifter alone and without backup. I need you to promise that you’ll talk to me before you do anything.” 

“I promise I won’t go out looking for shapeshifters without telling you,” Stiles said solemnly and despite hearing no lie in the beat of his heart Derek felt like he was being played. 

He let his eyes go red as he gave the boy a look that said he was onto him. “I’ll hold you to that.” 

The brat had the nerve to just grin at him.

\--

The next two weeks were quiet. The kids went to school and Derek went to work and they had their weekly pack meeting and nothing happened. There were no more strangely intense animals staring at him no matter how much on his guard he was. There were no reports of anything suspicious happening and it looked like the peace was actually going to last for once. 

Derek wasn’t nearly optimistic enough to actually believe it.

Stiles had given him his summarized information on shapeshifters a few days earlier telling him that it was unlikely he’d actually seen one if what he’d found out was true, which it might not be. That wasn’t nearly enough to make him relax, though and when something finally did happen he almost wished there was someone he could say ‘I told you so’ to. He’s obviously spent far too much time around petty navelgazing teenagers. 

It was the sheriff who ended up spotting that something was wrong first. The man didn’t particularly like Derek, though he wasn’t a good role model for the teens who were in his pack and had said that if he ever even considered giving his son the bite he’d be a werewolf pelt faster than he could blink. It was easy to promise not to turn Stiles because the boy had never asked to be turned and as good a wolf he would make, he was more useful as human. But that still didn’t stop him from wondering… 

Still, the sheriff had grudgingly accepted that there was little he could do to stop Stiles from involving himself and that meant he was mixed up in it, too. It also meant that if the police came across something that seemed supernatural in nature, he’d call Derek. 

He was in a diner eating when his phone started buzzing. He’d been ready to ignore the call but seeing the sheriff’s name flashing at him on the screen meant he really had no choice but to answer. 

“Hello,” he said because he knew it was a good idea to at least try to have a modicum of manners when speaking with the sheriff.

Besides, he kind of liked the man in a grudging sort of way. He’d still been a deputy when the fire had happened and he’d been kind to the orphaned siblings. And, he had raised someone like Stiles who was annoying and bratty and wonderfully unthinkingly loyal and cleverer than was good for him. 

“Is there something lurking in the woods that I should know about?” the sheriff asked bluntly. 

“We’re not sure,” Derek answered. “I thought there might be a shapeshifter or something out there but there’s been no sight of it recently.” 

The following silence stretched on for a few seconds before the sheriff sighed, sounding tired. “You’d better find out,” he finally said. 

“What did you find?” Derek asked. 

There was another stretch of silence but that didn’t really bother him. He liked silence and he didn’t think it was necessarily a bad thing for people to think about what they were going to say before it came out of their mouths. 

“We found a body,” the sheriff finally said. “A child’s body. The official cause of death is drowning.” 

“The pond in the reserve?” Derek asked because if the kid had drowned in a pool or something it would hardly warrant a call to the local alpha werewolf. Sometimes children were careless and died. It was horrible and sad but it happened. 

“Yes,” the sheriff said. 

That wasn’t all, Derek knew. Talking to someone via a phone significantly reduced the amount of things even a werewolf could tell about the person on the other end but he didn’t need special powers to know that something worse than drowning had happened. 

“Something had been eating her.” 

“Did you tell Stiles?” he asked. 

“No,” the sheriff said with a note of resignation in his tone. “I thought… maybe he wouldn’t need to know. Maybe you could just find out what it was and take care of it. You don’t need him for that.” 

“I could try to keep him out,” Derek said his tone half apologetic because they both knew just how effective that would be. 

If he told Stiles to stay away he’d go in on his own or with only Scott for help. The problem was that it was entirely likely that whatever it was that had drowned and eaten the child would be found by Stiles before Derek. Derek might’ve known werewolf lore better than Stiles but that was it. He’d need Stiles to look up what they were going against and how they could make it stop. 

“Just… just keep him safe,” the sheriff finally said before ending the call. 

He knew he was only putting off the inevitable when he didn’t immediately call Stiles and instead set out towards the pond. 

It wasn’t deep and during especially hot summers it dried out entirely. The water was dark green and stagnant and nothing really lived there apart from mosquitoes during breeding season. Even animals didn’t drink from it because there were better and cleaner sources of water available. It was reasonably near the actual town so a child might have wandered to it by accident and fallen in and drowned but it was unlikely. 

He could see a scrap of crime scene tape tied to a tree which meant that they’d already processed the scene and probably wouldn’t mind if Derek did a little investigating of his own. 

He could still smell the police and the rescue workers and the sour scent of panic and horror in the air. The salt of someone’s tears hung in the air like a ghost of scent and someone had vomited in the bushes the acrid smell still strong in the air. The pond itself smelled like stagnant water and mud and like something rotting. Having super strong sense of smell meant that he’d had to get used to the more unpleasant scents and it took quite a lot for him to be overwhelmed by smells. The peppermint and aniseed oil scent bombs Stiles and Lydia had cooked up were enough to fry a werewolf’s nose for a full day, however. 

He walked closer to the pond and watched the unmoving surface. His ears were alert for any sounds that didn’t belong and he kept scenting the air for anything that could give him a hint to what it was that had settled in on his territory and was preying on his humans. 

He thought he caught something when he picked up a stick and stirred the green surface of the water but he couldn’t be certain what it was. It was just… wrong but it was so faint he was almost afraid he’d imagined it. He walked a few times around the pond just in case he’d find something more but there was frustratingly little to find. 

Whether the sheriff liked it or not, he was going to have to turn to Stiles for help. 

\--

It was still awkward to enter the Stilinski residence via the front door (you creeper, his inner Stiles crowed at him) even if he knew that Stiles was the only one home. He could hear the slightly faster than normal heartbeat and the faint clicking sound of the computer keyboard and the faint creaking sound the chair made when Stiles shifted around. He listened as Stiles came down the stairs and then to the door. He paused, probably checking who it was, before opening the door. 

“You’d think it’d be weirder when you came in by the window but it’s really not,” Stiles greeted him unknowingly mirroring Derek’s earlier thoughts. 

It was late Stiles was wearing sweatpants and a worn blue hoodie over equally worn and soft looking T-shirt. His feet were bare and for some reason Derek found it really hard to ignore that. 

“Do come in,” Stiles said opening the door wider and stepping back. “I’d try to be a good host but you’re not exactly the type to be a good guest so we’ll skip that part, okay?” 

Derek just shrugged knowing that his silence would do nothing to slow Stiles down. 

“I know why you’re here,” Stiles said as he walked up the stairs half twisted back so that he could look at Derek. It was a wonder he didn’t stumble and fall. “I’ve been listening to the police scanner so I’ve got a fairly good idea what’s going on. If you fill me in with whatever it was you found then I can do my thing and we’ll figure out a way to handle this, yeah?” 

“How do you know I found anything?” Derek asked. 

Stiles just waved his hand dismissively. “Of course you at least checked out the place,” he said. “And there must’ve been something.” 

Even if he’d never been in the house, Derek would’ve known which room was Stiles’s just by smell alone. Stiles wasn’t a neat freak but he did clean his room regularly enough that there were no moldy forgotten plates of food anywhere. Mostly the room just smelled like teenage boy and Stiles and a part of Derek found it calming. He told himself it was because Stiles was about as nonthreatening as someone could be. It was a lie, of course, but one he was mostly comfortable with. 

“I’ve been thinking that it’s got to be a water monster but there are surprisingly many of those. Even mermaids can be surprisingly nasty if you believe some of the stuff I’ve read but they don’t exactly live in small ponds,” Stiles went on as he took his seat at the table again and waved at Derek to sit on his bed. 

“A mermaid would probably smell like fish,” Derek said. 

Stiles’ eyebrows scrunched together as he gave it some thought. He was twirling a pen in his right hand absentmindedly and his left leg was tapping a steady rhythm against the floor. Derek took the moment to breathe in a little deeper and categorize the scents in the room. 

He separated the normal smells of cleaning agents and dust and sweat and concentrated on the more recent smells. Scott had been in the room maybe the day ago and had probably unknowingly marked it with his own scent. There were traces of Scott in the edges of the door and around the window to warn off other wolves. He could smell the sheriff around, too, but mostly the room was just full of Stiles. He very carefully avoided thinking about the strong scent that was bound to Stiles’ bed because he wasn’t that far gone. 

“True, I suppose,” Stiles said. “So what did you find?” 

Lately the cacophony of scents that made up Stiles had gained a new edge that Derek suspected was his increased use of magic. If he had to compare it to something it would be the smell of ozone, like the air right after a lightning strike. 

“Nothing,” he said. “I thought I picked up a scent that didn’t belong but I don’t know what it was.” 

It had taken the alpha pack for him to be able to reveal something like that to anyone. 

“So it was something you’ve not smelled before,” Stiles said sticking the pen in his mouth and chewing on it. “But you’d recognize it if you smelled it again?” 

He shrugged. “Probably,” he said. 

“No tracks of anything?” Stiles asked whirling around in his chairs and putting his fingers on the keyboard again. He didn’t type anything yet but he was clearly ready. 

Derek shook his head. 

“Mm,” Stiles hummed. “Do you think the pond is its nest or something or does it just need a handy body of water to down its victims in? Do you think it even needs to drown them or if it was just a convenient way of killing the poor kid? Subtlety isn’t exactly a skill most supes are well versed in but a drowning is marginally less suspicious than plain mauling. Especially after Peter ‘the mountain lion’ Hale.” 

And that was part of why Stiles was good at the whole research thing. It didn’t just require the skill to find the most likely answers and the ability to weed out the dubious sources. It also needed someone who asked the right questions and didn’t jump to conclusions without trying to see all the possible angles. Derek suspected it was a result of having a cop for a dad and hanging out at the station when he was younger. 

“I don’t know,” he admitted again. “But I think the water is important.” 

Stiles flashed him a quick smile that did little to alleviate the feeling of uselessness at not being able to answer any of the important questions. 

“I think you’re right,” Stiles said as he turned back to the computer and started typing. “The kid who died didn’t exactly live near the pond and there must’ve been other places along the way where the thing could’ve killed her without alerting anyone. Hell, there were probably pools somewhere along that way too so maybe it needs to be near that pond.” 

For all that Stiles’ babble could be incredibly annoying when he went on and on about things that didn’t really matter, it could have the opposite effect too. When Stiles was working and talking at the same time he wasn’t hiding anything and that show of trust made the wolf part of him happy. And, if he had to be honest with himself, maybe the human part of him didn’t mind too much. 

“So we can almost definitely say that we’re dealing with something water based,” Stiles continued oblivious to what was going on in Derek’s head. “But you’d be surprised by the amount of things that can lurk in water. I can’t actually know for sure which of these legends are true and which are just stories made up to warn children to stay away from dangerous places.” 

Derek watched as Stiles clicked open more and more tabs, he was almost certain one of the tabs was open on youtube where a kitten had apparently just fallen over before it’d been paused.

“That’s what monster stories are about sometimes,” Stiles continued absentmindedly. “They’re usually warnings or meant to teach a lesson and sometimes they’re used as explanation for something that people back then didn’t understand. Like vampires, which you claim don’t exist. People’s hair and nails don’t actually grow after they’re dead, the skin just pulls back exposing more of them but people didn’t know that before and it freaked them out and thus vampires. There were a lot of different vampire stories, too, apart from your usual Dracula and Twilight and most of them were pretty gruesome and didn’t involve pretty young women in revealing nightgowns. Although, there was this one story about a lesbian vampire who fed from another woman’s breast.” 

If Stiles had stopped working while he was talking Derek would’ve growled at him and told him to concentrate on doing his job but Stiles was good at multitasking. The problem, as he understood it, was concentrating on only one thing at a time. 

“And werewolves,” Stiles continued. “I know that you’re real now so maybe those stories have some truth to them but there are a ton of werewolf stories out there, too. The common theory is that they’re a monster created to remind us of our more bestial nature like vampires are supposed to be the personification of our greed.”

Stiles paused in both talking and typing. 

“Not that I think you’re monsters,” he said finally turning just enough to flash an apologetic smile at him. “I couldn’t think of Scott as a monster even when he was trying to kill me.” 

“Scary things are called monsters,” Derek just said. 

Stiles just hummed and turned back to the computer again. He didn’t continue his babbling and started humming, instead, something upbeat and repetitive and something that would probably get stuck in his head for a couple of hours at least. 

He knew he didn’t have to stay and wait for Stiles to finish his search. It was entirely possible Stiles wouldn’t even be done in one sitting and would need to check out the bestiary, or what little of it had been translated, and the other books that he’d been accumulating ever since Scott got bitten. But he didn’t have anything else he needed to do. He knew Isaac was with Scott and Allison, Erica and Boyd were out together and Peter was somewhere doing something he probably didn’t want to know. 

“I’ve been wondering,” Stiles suddenly said pulling him away from his thoughts. “What kind of stories do werewolves tell their kids?” 

Derek thought about it for a moment and wondered if Stiles actually expected him to answer that. While he knew Stiles was fully capable of being intentionally cruel, he didn’t think this was one of those times. 

“Mostly the same stories, I suppose,” he answered. “Except that we knew some of those monsters really existed.” He frowned. 

Stiles stopped again and spun around completely to look at Derek with an interested look on his face. 

“Really?” he asked. “Do you remember which stories you were told? Because it would help to know which stories are actually true and which are not.” 

“To be honest, I think some of the stories were just meant to scare us. I don’t really know which ones were true,” Derek admitted. “I don’t think that bears actually eat children who step on the cracks on sidewalks.” 

“Never heard of that one,” Stiles said leaning forward and practically radiating interest. 

Derek just shrugged. “Go back to your search,” he said. 

The boy rolled his eyes but spun around again, allowing the chair to go one extra round before doing as he was told. 

\--

“You smell like him.” 

Ever since he’d come back from the dead, Peter’s scent had changed to include a touch of the sickly sweet smell of decay. It made his fingertips and gums itch but he couldn’t actually afford to do anything about it. Peter was the last blood relative he had left and he couldn’t bring himself to kill him again. Besides, he’d made himself too useful to get rid of, even by banishing him from the pack lands. 

He glared at his uncle who didn’t even have the grace to look apologetic at invading the small apartment he’d finally gotten at the insistence of his pack. It only had two rooms with the kitchen connecting directly to the living area and a tiny bedroom. He could’ve afforded a bigger place what with inheriting everything and with the insurance money from the fire, but he’d been thinking about a bigger place for the pack when they finally functioned as one. It wasn’t exactly a rule that packs had to live with each other but there was an instinct to want to be close and he could still remember the safety living with his family had brought with it. But he could also remember that the same closeness had meant that one attack had killed almost everyone. 

“I needed information,” he growled and wondered why he’d even bothered to say anything. 

He didn’t need to justify his actions to Peter, of all people. 

“You could’ve always come to me,” Peter said. “I don’t exactly have to look for my information from the internet.” 

“So what do you know?” he asked. 

The thing was that Peter was right. He’d been an actual adult when the fire had happened and he’d had time to learn things that Derek hadn’t yet been interested in. But if it was difficult for him to admit to Stiles that he needed help, it was infinitely harder to admit it to Peter who he’d killed and stolen the alpha title from. He couldn’t trust Peter and he didn’t know what he was planning. It didn’t help that Peter had been one of those rare werewolves who could do some magic. 

“There’s not much to go on, really,” Peter said. “But it is some kind of water monster.” 

Derek scoffed. “Stiles could tell me more than that,” he said. 

Peter didn’t look deterred and his eyes narrowed and the corners of his mouth twitched up a little. It felt like he’d walked into a trap he hadn’t even suspected might be there and now he didn’t know which way to pull to get out. 

“He is useful, isn’t he,” Peter said. “And trying to make himself even more so recently from what I’ve heard.” 

Derek tensed. He didn’t like the focus with which Peter regarded some members of his pack. For all that he’d bitten Scott first and had been trying to get him to be his beta, now that he’d lost the alpha status he didn’t pay much attention to the boy. Whenever Lydia was near, he tended to focus on her even though every werewolf near could smell her distress. And then there was Stiles… 

“What are you talking about?” he asked eyes bleeding red and voice more growl than not. 

Peter just looked at him with feigned surprise. “You don’t know? He’s been such a good little helper to you that I though you must know.” 

“Know. What.” 

Peter just smiled and waved his hand. “I’m sure he knows what he’s doing if he’s keeping it a secret. Far be it from me to reveal something he doesn’t want revealed just yet.” 

“The magic,” Derek said. “You’re talking about that.” 

The older werewolf just hummed and stood up from where he’d been sitting on the couch. “Maybe I should pay him a visit and we could compare notes,” he mused. 

It was such obvious bait that Derek almost didn’t take it but he knew that if he said nothing then Peter would take it as his explicit permission. He couldn’t afford to be contrary just because he didn’t want to be predictable and he couldn’t let Peter have free access to Stiles… or any other member of his pack. 

“No,” he said. “We’ll have a pack meeting and you can talk with him there but you’re not going to see him at his home.” 

The home where Derek had, unlike Scott, completely deliberately marked his territory as well as he could with just touch. It wouldn’t last long but that wasn’t the point. 

“Fine,” Peter said holding his hands up in surrender. “But you don’t have to worry. I wouldn’t turn him now even if I could.” 

Derek wondered if there was something behind the deliberate choice to use the word ‘turn’ instead of ‘bite’. Talking with Peter for any extended length of time tended to make him want to take a shower. 

“Have you offered it to him?” Peter asked suddenly. 

“Offered what?” he asked before his brain connected the dots. “No.” 

“Why not?” 

“He’s more useful as human,” he said. “And his father would hunt us down.” 

The thing about wolves was that a huge part of their communication was all about body language. Werewolves weren’t wolves but they weren’t human either and what Peter’s body was practically yelling at him was ‘you believe what you want, but I know how it really is’. He knew Stiles sometimes called Peter ‘sassy’ (and creepy) and he wondered if it was the same as annoying. 

“But then he’d be yours,” Peter said and paused just for a bit too long before continuing, “a good little beta.” 

“Why can’t you just say what you want to say instead of playing around?” he asked feeling tired. 

Peter just grinned at him, the sickly sweet smell of decay surrounding him. Derek found himself thinking back on what Stiles had said earlier and wondered if they couldn’t be monsters after all. 

\--

They had the pack meeting two days after the child had been found. There had been no new disappearances but Derek had been feeling uneasy and on edge, not liking that there was something preying on his people on his territory. 

They were holding the meeting at his apartment because there were no other suitable places available. It would be a tight fit but they could make do and it wasn’t like it would take too long. Isaac was already there because he’d crashed on Derek’s couch, like he did more often than not. Erica and Boyd came next followed by Scott, Allison and Stiles. Peter slipped in just before the time they’d agreed on and leaned against the wall next to where Stiles was sitting on the floor with his laptop open on his knees. Derek saw the boy tense, even though he didn’t spare Peter a glance before relaxing again. 

“So…” Derek said when they’d all settled down and were waiting for him to speak. “I suppose you know what this meeting is about.” 

He felt awkward and like he was doing this wrong. It was much easier to just bark orders at his betas but that had just led to two of them abandoning him and one afraid of him. Their wolves might consider him their alpha and leader but their stubborn hormonal teenager selves didn’t really like him all that much. 

“The kid, right?” Scott asked squeezing Allison’s hand in his. “The one they found dead in that pond.” 

Derek nodded. “Yes. The sheriff called me and asked me to look into it.” 

“Which basically means I’ve been looking into it,” Stiles cut in and Derek would’ve snapped at him for interrupting him if he didn’t have a point. “And I’ve got a few things it could be.” 

He did have the manners to pause and look at Derek for permission to continue, though he had the feeling that he would’ve continued on even if Derek told him to shut up. It preserved his authority more if he said yes immediately instead of stalled. He nodded. 

“So there are several water creatures that like to lure children to their deaths and then eat them. Option number on is a kelpie, which is basically a water horse. Appears to children as a horse and lures them to sit on its back which is sticky or something and then rides with them into water and they drown and then it eats them. Then we have the neck or nixie or water sprites. There are several different stories told about them and they all do pretty much the same thing except with different methods. The common theme seems to be that they transform into something else, an animal or a beautiful woman and lure their victims in the water to drown them. Some Scandinavian legends have them playing music to lure their victims, women or children, into the water as well.” 

He paused to draw breath and to think. 

“And apparently there are such things as river mermaids, if the German legends are true but I don’t think this is what we’re dealing with,” he continued. 

“I’m impressed,” Peter murmured. “That is the conclusion I came to, as well.” 

Derek gritted his teeth but didn’t say anything about how it wasn’t Peter’s place to tell his pack when they’d done a good job. 

“To be honest, most of this stuff was pretty easy to find on wikipedia,” Stiles said shrugging. “I did do some cross referencing but those are the things that kept repeating over and over so they’re most likely to be true as well.” 

“It’s probably not the horse,” Derek said. “I would’ve smelled it even if was waterlogged and transformed. It’s possible to hide your scent but not manufacture it and change it to something else.” 

“So we’re probably dealing with a water sprite then,” Stiles said fingers moving over the keyboard. 

“So what are we going to do about it?” Isaac asked. “If it can change its shape and we don’t know what it smells like?” 

“And should we even do something?” Erica asked. “It’s not hunting us so how is it our business?” 

“Do you want more hunters to come?” Derek asked with just a hint of growl in his voice. “This is my territory and that means I’m responsible for everything that happens in it. The hunters that follow the code will hold me and my pack responsible if we do nothing while this thing keeps killing people.” 

“It’s true,” Allison said. “My father has been looking into this, too, and he will call in reinforcements if he thinks he needs them.” 

And their inaction might just be enough for even hunters that claimed to follow the code to claim they’d broken their end of the deal. They couldn’t afford to fight hunters again after they’d barely survived the alpha pack. Any sign of increasing instability would also bring out the werewolves without territory and dreams of being an alpha. Even if they did win, the victory wouldn’t come without a price. 

“So how do we find the thing?” Boyd asked. “We don’t know what it looks like, we don’t know what it smells like and we don’t exactly know what it is.” 

Derek glanced at Stiles and Peter but neither said anything and he supposed that meant he’d have to come up with the plan of action. 

“There’s not much we can do. Keep your eyes and ears open. Pay attention to the way people smell. Whatever this thing is, it won’t smell like human,” he said because that was all they could do. “I want Stiles and Peter looking for anything that might help and Allison can keep us informed on what the hunters are doing.” 

“We should probably try to keep an eye on that pond,” Peter suggested, the very image of a helpful beta. 

“I actually have a few ideas about that,” Stiles said but didn’t elaborate which made Derek nervous. 

He wanted to interrogate the stupid boy until he spilled out every secret he’d been keeping from his alpha but he knew he couldn’t. For someone whose lack of brain to mouth filter was almost legendary, Stiles could be incredibly tight lipped with things he kept close to his heart. He didn’t miss the shrewd look on Peter’s face when he looked down at the boy. 

“Nothing dangerous,” he said as if he’d sensed what Derek was thinking. “I promise. I won’t even go near that pond.” 

He was speaking the truth but Derek couldn’t help feeling like this was one of those times when the truth wasn’t as simple as it sounded. 

“What about that shapeshifter you were so worried about before?” Erica asked. “Don’t you think that was the water monster? Didn’t you get its scent then?” 

“Could be,” he said. “But did you smell anything unnatural about it when you saw it?” he asked. 

The betas thought about it before shaking their heads one after another. The squirrel that might or might not have been a hungry water sprite had smelled of squirrel and nothing else and that contradicted Derek’s earlier statement that you couldn’t change your own scent no matter what shape you took. But maybe it was different for shapeshifters… 

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Stiles said airily and smelling of secrets. “I’m pretty sure that the squirrel wasn’t dangerous and that it had nothing to do with this. None of the legends about nixies say anything about them being able to change into other shapes than human and maybe a horse or a dog.” 

Truth again but he’d have to be blind and deaf to not see the shape of things lurking just where he couldn’t see them properly. He’d have to confront Stiles about it soon or he’d do something stupid. He wished he knew who to ‘he’ in that sentence was. 

“No one is going to do anything stupid to put themselves or the pack in danger,” he growled and glared at them just to make a point. 

It was a bit disheartening to see that they weren’t nearly as cowed as they used to be but he knew he wasn’t really trying that hard. 

“Aye aye,” Stiles just said grinning. 

\--

Despite their vigilance there was another death. It was a woman this time and it looked like it was exactly what Stiles had thought it was. It was the pond again, despite their increased vigilance, and she drowned again and someone had eaten most of her left leg before the body was found. 

When Derek had gone to Stiles that evening he’d found the boy pale and smelling like acid and spearmint, but mostly he smelled of distress and that made the wolf inside him want to push out and wrap his larger alpha form body around him. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked the moment the door opened. 

He’d had to fight with himself against using the window which would’ve been quicker but he’d promised the sheriff. 

“Sorry,” Stiles said as he allowed Derek inside. “Just… Suffering some aftereffects from a spectacularly stupid decision. Nothing dangerous! Just stupid.” 

That wasn’t exactly reassuring. 

“You know you can’t keep your secrets forever,” he said. 

Stiles practically radiated guilt but there was nothing particularly apologetic about him. He clearly thought he was doing the right thing and that whatever secrets he kept he was keeping for a good reason. That was the thing that Derek hated about trust. It meant that he couldn’t push too far even when he wanted to without breaking it. 

“Just a little longer,” Stiles said holding his fingers a short distance apart in a completely needless visual representation of how little time he was asking for. “I won’t harm the pack.” 

“You do know you’re a part of it,” Derek said because it needed to be said. “And stupid things that harm you harm the pack.” 

“It’s nothing like that,” Stiles said. “It’s just a thing I’m trying out and it’s kind of sensitive.” 

It still wasn’t exactly reassuring but he could tell that pushing wouldn’t get him anywhere and there was the water monster to think about anyway. 

“Fine. But after this is over you’re telling me.” 

Stiles nodded. “Cross my heart,” he said. 

Derek didn’t really have anything to say to that. He was still feeling frustrated over being kept in the dark when Peter knew something and he couldn’t be certain Stiles even knew what he was doing. It had something to do with magic and magic was dangerous and always cost more than it seemed. 

“Sooo…” Stiles said after the silence had stretched on for too long. “I think I know what it is we’re looking for.” 

Derek frowned at that. “How?” 

“I have my ways, grasshopper,” Stiles said grinning. “But anyway, I’m almost ninety percent certain that what we’re looking for is a neck and apparently it’s native to the Scandinavian region. How one of them ended up here, I have no idea, but apparently it’s taken a liking to this place.” 

“How do we kill it?” Derek asked because he wasn’t in the mood to hear everything there was to know about this neck or whatever. 

Stiles was quiet for a second or two. “According to what I’ve read they’re not all bad,” he said as if he hadn’t heard Derek’s question. “We might be able to convince it to leave.” 

“It’s killed two people,” Derek said. “One of them was a child. It wanted to eat them.” 

Stiles’s whole body slumped a little in defeat. “I know,” he said quietly. 

“So how do we kill it?” Derek asked feeling like he’d somehow become the bad guy. 

For all that Stiles hadn’t had a problem with killing the kanima and firebombing Peter, their encounter with the alphas had changed him. No one really knew what had happened when one of the alphas had been holding Stiles, but the pack had found only Stiles alive, pale and shaking and smelling of shock and blood. The general consensus was that there was no possible way Stiles could’ve killed the alpha since he’d been completely unarmed but there was always the seed of doubt there. No one tried asking anymore when doing so caused Stiles’s scent to go so sour it made their wolves whimper. 

Whatever it was that had happened, Stiles had been much less inclined to turn to violence after that. 

“One way to kill it is to call it by its name,” Stiles said left leg jiggling with nervous energy. “Another way to get rid of it is to throw a stone in the water near it. Apparently that is supposed to create a whirlpool where a dragon lives. To be honest I kind of doubt that one. There’s nothing that says it’s immune to claws or teeth. And, of course, practically everything is weak to iron apart from maybe you lot.” 

“So the main problem is just finding it,” Derek said. “Or is there something that we should know to look out for when we do find it? Does it have claws or teeth or venom?” 

“There’s no mention,” Stiles said. “Mostly it’s just about them luring unsuspecting victims into the water. Their song is supposedly irresistible so maybe invest in earplugs?” 

It was clearly a joke, even if it was a halfway sensible suggestion but it was obvious the boy’s heart wasn’t in it. 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said. 

“As for how to find it… They’re almost always male from what I’ve read, but when they do take human form it’s either as an incredibly beautiful woman or as an old man so maybe start looking out for those,” Stiles said. “In their real forms they’d apparently pretty ugly. Might be worth it to always watch the pond, though that might just make it change its methods.” 

Derek nodded. “I want you to stay out of this,” he said already knowing how useless it would be in the end but going through the motions anyway. “There’s just one of them and unless you’re wrong about it having no defenses then a pack of werewolves should be enough to handle it.” 

Stiles didn’t even have to turn around for Derek to know he was probably rolling his eyes. 

“I’ll talk about it with Peter,” Stiles said not making any promises they both knew he’d break anyway. 

He almost snapped at the boy to stay away from his uncle but managed to keep his jaws clenched shut somehow. If he’d learned one thing when dealing with teenagers it was that telling them not to do something usually led to the opposite. The one time he’d tried reverse psychology it’d ended the same so he’d found out that growling and staying silent worked marginally better. 

“I’ll let you know if we find it,” he said instead. 

\--

He half expected Stiles to find the thing first because that was how his life worked these days. What happened instead was that Allison missed a meeting with Scott and then wouldn’t answer her phone when the boy tried calling her repeatedly. After Scott had worked himself into a mild panic he called Stiles because that’s what he did when there was a problem that needed solving. 

“Dude,” Stiles had said in his dealing with Scott voice. 

Derek had been with him at that moment because… because he’d needed information. The looks Peter sometimes gave him said that he’d needed an awful lot of ‘information’ recently. It bothered him a bit that Peter seemed almost pleased with his increased need to spend time around Stiles. It made him feel like it was even more wrong than he already though it was. Never mind that nothing had happened and that he had no plans for anything to happen either. 

Not that there was even anything to happen. 

“You’re a werewolf,” Stiles continued. “You can hear her heartbeat halfway across town and you’ve been going on and on about her scent. Track her down and then apologize to her when it turns out she had a perfectly reasonable reason to not answer her phone.” 

Derek could hear Scott thank Stiles over the phone before he ended the call. If the other boy had picked up on the way Stiles’ heartbeat went up a little he didn’t mention it. It was more likely that he was too worried about Allison to notice and it was difficult to pick things up over the phone anyway. 

“I think we need to go to the pond,” Stiles said as he stood up and grabbed his hoodie. “I’d like to think that Allison would be the safest of us because of her hunter background but it’s better to be safe than sorry, right?” 

Derek was faster than Stiles and was at the door long before the boy had even realized he’d moved from where he’d been sitting on his bed. 

“You are staying here,” he growled allowing his eyes to go red. “You won’t argue with me about this and you won’t go behind my back.” 

Stiles was pack but his position in the pack was complicated at best and a nightmare at worst. He’d started out as part of Scott’s minipack and when Scott had migrated over to Derek’s pack he’d brought his two humans with him. But Stiles had already acted like a part of Derek’s pack long before that, even if he’d complained and whined and had to be threatened into it. And added to that was Derek’s weird fixation on his scent and it was… complicated. The fact that he was human made it even worse because human packmates didn’t have the same instinct to follow their alpha’s demands. 

“No!” Stiles said furious. “I’m not going to stay here while my best friend and Allison could be walking right into danger.” 

“And I’m not going to watch you walk into danger!” 

It took Stiles’ shocked silence and wide eyes for him to realize what he’d practically yelled at the boy. 

“You are staying here,” he ground out letting his ‘alpha power’ roll over the room. It wouldn’t have nearly as strong effect on a human as it would a werewolf but even they could feel it. Stiles had once described it as it feeling like the air had suddenly become heavier around him. “There is nothing more you can do at the pond if the creature is there. We know what we’re going against and what to do about it.” 

Stiles was glaring at him and standing his ground and his scent was fluctuating wildly between righteous anger at being pushed around and uncertain submission. 

“I will call Peter to babysit you if I feel like I need to,” Derek said. 

The anger was still there, sharp like frost in his nose, but he could see Stiles giving in his body language screaming frustration at being treated like a child, like a liability. A part of Derek wanted to reassure him and tell him that he was anything but, that he had to stay safe because he was too valuable to lose, but he couldn’t. 

“Just stay,” he said. 

“I’m not the dog here,” Stiles muttered but it was a weak jab and the last of a crumbling resistance and Derek felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. 

“I need to go,” he said reassured that he’d gotten his message through this time. 

He took the window exit because he’d already wasted too much time. He could see Stiles watch from the window as he went to the Camaro and drove off, sending messages to the rest of his pack to get to the pond. He just hoped that he was right this once and everything would go smoothly. 

\--

Of course things would go to shit. Of course it would happen right after he’d told Stiles that he and his pack would take care of the monster all on their own. His life was just an unending series of things going horribly wrong, wasn’t it. 

They’d been alerted that something was wrong when they’d heard Scott’s whimpering. The smell of his distress mixed in with the scent of stagnation from the pond. The scent of Allison’s perfume wafted in the air, sweet and floral and out of place among the more primal smells. 

“Circle around to the other side,” he told Erica and Boyd. “Isaac will stay with me. If you see a chance to take it down, do it.” 

His betas nodded before two of them ran off to take the longer way around. Isaac had already wolfed out but Derek held back still. If Stiles was right and it could communicate with them, then maybe getting it to talk would distract it enough so that they could attack. The annoying and frustratingly smart Stiles voice in his head pointed out that if talking was the plan he’d left his most valuable asset at home. 

He had no idea if the creature had anywhere near as good senses as werewolves had. He didn’t know if it knew they were in the forest. It had obviously managed to capture Scott somehow and that was slightly worrying, because for all that Stiles called himself the clever one of the two of them, Scott wasn’t actually stupid and he had the best control of his wolf in the pack apart from Peter and him and he was perfectly capable of making plans that worked. 

Something was about to go horribly wrong. 

The sound hit them as soon as they broke from the trees to the small area of clear land around the pond. It froze them in their tracks and Derek couldn’t move a muscle even if he’d wanted to. It was obvious that Scott was in the exact same position with his arms out towards the pond that really was too shallow an adult to drown in it without help. 

Allison was there, standing hip deep in the mucky water with a vacant expression on her face. She wasn’t the only one in the water, either, and it didn’t exactly take a genius to see where the sound was coming from. He tried to move but he’d lost complete control over his own muscles and he was frozen in place. He couldn’t even move his jaw to call out a warning to Boyd and Erica who would be there any moment now and be caught in the same trap. 

As soon as he’d thought about it, his two remaining betas burst out of the trees and were frozen just like everyone else, apart from Allison who just seemed to be under some kind of spell. 

He turned his eyes, which were still under his control, towards the creature standing in the still water. Its mouth was slightly open and the sound it made couldn’t have come out of normal vocal cords. 

The thing was… weird. It was like looking at something through a sheet of glass that hadn’t been made right and bubbled at some points and distorted everything behind it. One moment Derek could swear he was looking at an old man with weathered skin and unkempt gray beard and the next time he blinked it was a woman of unparalled and unnatural beauty with dark hair and pale skin and full pink lips. Between those shapes he could see something else flicked into existence just for the briefest of moments.

But one thing didn’t change. The scent of the pond and the forest around them was strong and overwhelming but there was no hiding the scent of the thing in the water. The ghost of a scent he’d caught before was there, stronger now and almost overwhelming. It smelled like the pond, like something stagnant and gone to ruin. Somewhere between shapes, he could see rows of needle sharp teeth that probably had no problem biting into human flesh. 

While Stiles had been right about them needing to be careful of the ‘music’ he’d been wrong about them being able to talk to it. Not that it helped to know that now. 

The sound stopped suddenly and Derek was fully ready to pounce but he still couldn’t move. He could hear distressed whines coming from his betas. Allison moved a step closer to the creature, still in a daze. 

“That’s it,” the creature said suddenly, it’s voice sibilant and watery. “Come closer darling.” 

It was obviously speaking to Allison now, unconcerned with the trapped wolves all around it. He couldn’t help but wonder, helpless as he was, if it was going to keep them under its control and eat them one by one. Peter was still out there and so was Stiles and he didn’t know if he wanted them to come to their rescue or if he wanted them to stay away. He couldn’t really bring himself to care about Peter but Stiles… this was exactly why he’d insisted the boy to stay back. The thought that he’d come anyway made his heart beat faster and his throat close in. 

“Wouldn’t a little swim be nice?” the creature crooned as Allison stepped closer still movement hindered by the water and the muddy bottom of the pond. 

Scott’s whines were getting more and more desperate and Derek could see his claws grow and retract uselessly. He wondered if it was a sign that the control was wearing off, or if it was something that the paralysis didn’t prevent. 

It was Isaac’s sudden panicked whine that drew his attention to the sound that was coming from behind them. He could feel his insides go cold as he recognized the sound of a human making his way through the undergrowth and his ears picked up the slightly too fast heartbeat like his ears were always tuned to it. 

Stupidstupidstupidstupidstupid! 

Why couldn’t he ever do as he was told? Why couldn’t he understand that he was human and so so much more breakable than practically everyone around him? Why couldn’t he accept that he could be just as useful away from the front lines? 

He growled as loud as he could with most of his body frozen. Unfortunately, his pathetic attempt at warning the idiot away drew the attention of the creature that had been solely focused on getting Allison to drown herself. The flickering shapes were slowly solidifying into the alien shape beneath the human ones. 

It was ugly. Its skin was pale and looked greenish in the poor light. Its mouth was too wide and full of sharp teeth. Its eyes were pale and its hands looked more like flippers with thin skin connecting long stick thin fingers. It was thin enough that its bones stuck out stretching against its skin but its stomach was bloated. 

“More?” it warbled the word wet in its throat. “This is a good night.” 

Its mouth stretched out in a smile that would’ve made even the most seasoned hunter blanch. The thought of that mouth latching down on Stiles’ flesh was… He fought against the paralysis again but there was no give. He could feel sweat beginning to build on his forehead and slide down and into his eyes, making him blink harder. 

And then, before he could do anything, Stiles stumbled into the clearing blinking owlishly at the scene before him. The creature in the water hadn’t started to sing again, probably because it could tell that Stiles was only human and had no way to attack it. 

“Oh shit,” Stiles had time to mumble before the thing opened its mouth and started making the noise again. 

The helpless whine that escaped Derek’s throat when Stiles froze bore striking resemblance to the noises Scott had been making all along. He could hear Stiles’ heart beating faster and faster and his eyes widened as he realized what had happened to his body. 

And then it stopped. 

It was like he’d suddenly turned deaf and blind to everything that wasn’t the stupid idiot of a boy. He’d been so intricately tuned to that slightly too fast heartbeat that it felt like his own heart had stopped beating. He couldn’t turn his head to get a proper look at Stiles and all he could do was strain his eyes and try see what had happened. Stiles was still frozen but his eyes were flat and lifeless. There were no visible wounds and there was no smell of blood coming from him. 

“What?” 

He could barely hear the creature responsible for all of this say, as if it, too, couldn’t understand what was going on. The sense of helpless loss was suddenly overtaken by a red wave or pure rage and he could feel his fangs and claws push to the surface, his muscles and bones creaking against the pressure of the spell, or whatever it was, as his body sought to change its shape to better kill and rend flesh and break bone. 

His fingers twitched. 

That drew the creature’s attention again and it started making the sound again. It didn’t stop the low continuous growl coming out of his throat. From the corner of his eye he could see Scott’s hands twitch as well. The creature’s concentration had to be breaking a little but it wasn’t happening fast enough. Every second without that familiar heartbeat was a second too long. 

And that was the moment when things turned from horrible to bizarre in a few seconds. 

Even his enhanced werewolf hearing barely had any warning as the shadow swooped down from the trees. He barely had time to see the shape of wings and sharp yellow eyes before it landed on the creature with its talons digging into the flesh of its face as its wings flapped wildly to keep its balance. 

The creature let out a loud screech of pain and raised its arms to protect itself from the sudden attack. The bird tried to fly away from the flailing arms but long greenish fingers managed to catch hold of one wing grabbing it hard enough that the feathers crumpled and the bird let out a screech of pain. 

The creature’s face was scored with deep welts which were oozing blood so dark it was almost black and it was hissing with rage, ready to rip apart the animal that had attacked it. Derek was still frozen in place but he could hear a deep growl and then another werewolf came out of the shadows behind the creature and before anyone could do anything, it had its jaws around the creature’s throat. 

The crunch of breaking bone and cartilage was loud even under the panicked screech of the bird. Even in death the creature hadn’t loosened the grip it had on it and it looked like its wing was broken, the soft feathers bent or torn out in the struggle. 

When Peter stood up, hip deep in the horrible water and face painted with near black blood, the paralysis finally went away and all the wolves who’d been captured fell to the ground surprised by the sudden return of control. 

Scott was immediately scrambling for Allison, who’d briefly gone underwater as she’d snapped out of the trance she’d been in. Derek was completely focused on the crumpled form of Stiles lying mere feet from him, heart painfully silent and eyes still vacant and dead. 

“No no no no no,” someone was repeating desperately like it would help any. 

He could hear his betas making distressed whines somewhere behind him but he couldn’t pay them any attention now. Apart from being paralyzed for a moment, they were fine unlike… 

His hands hovered over Stiles’ unnaturally still body, mind a mess and unable to do anything. Unable to think. What was he supposed to do when someone’s heart had stopped? CPR? Was it too late? Give him the bite? Even that didn’t bring back the dead. 

“Stand back if you’re going to be useless.” 

He hadn’t even noticed Peter walking out of the water and standing next to him, dripping and stinking to high heaven. His uncle was holding the injured bird, which had stopped struggling even though it was obviously in pain. Derek could hear its heart beat a staccato beat in its chest. 

“You were supposed to keep him safe,” he growled full of impotent rage. “He wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near this place.” 

Peter didn’t look impressed. 

“We don’t have time for your dramatics,” he said. “Stand back and don’t get in the way.” 

“No,” he growled sinking deeper into his alpha form, ready to tear apart something to feel better even though he knew it wouldn’t work. 

He always lost everything he loved. Why would this time be any different, even if he’d kept lying to himself in the desperate hope that it would somehow help. 

“Stand back or you’ll really lose him,” Peter said voice still infuriatingly calm. “And even if you somehow didn’t care, I certainly don’t want to lose a valuable asset like him.” 

What? 

“I have no time for stupid questions right now. Stand. Back.” 

His feet had taken the steps back before his brain caught up with his body. Peter wasn’t an alpha anymore but he hadn’t been a normal beta either after he’d come back. Everything about him was unnatural. But Stiles’ heartbeat failing had been unnatural as well. Maybe he could help. 

Hope was poison but he couldn’t help but grab onto even the tiniest shard of it. He was tired of loss. 

He watched as Peter knelt down on the dirty ground with his once neat clothes covered in pond scum and dripping wet. He didn’t seem to be actually doing anything. He was just looking at Stiles’ body with a critical look before bringing the injured bird closer to the body and then prodding at it to hop onto Stiles’ chest. The birds bright yellow eyes turned to look at Stiles’ pale face. 

“Time to go back,” Peter said. “You still remember how.” 

Nothing happened. Derek was faintly aware of his betas, including Scott and Allison were standing around him holding their breaths and waiting. 

And then several things happened at once. 

Stiles’ heart started beating again, slowly at first but picking up pace beat after beat. The owl started screeching in pain again and Peter grabbed it again before it could slice Stiles’ chest to ribbons with sharp talons. Stiles blinked and then curled up as if in pain, holding his left arms close to his chest. 

“Fuck fuck fuck,” he whined in pain. 

He could vaguely hear Peter ask Scott if he’d ever dealt with injured birds but he didn’t hear Scott’s response if he gave one. Everyone was suddenly crowding the idiot human on the ground and checking him for any injuries with practically every sense they had on their disposal. He was paler than usual and clearly in some pain but there were no obvious injuries on him apart from a few shallow scratches that he’d gotten when his body had fallen down. The arm he was clutching was uninjured and though his eyes had trouble focusing there was nothing to indicate he’d hit his head or something. 

“Sorry,” he slurred. “It’s always a bit weird afterwards.” 

Derek was on the relief part of his emotional roller coaster but he could see anger lurking behind the next curve. 

“Everything,” he growled. “You’re explaining everything after we get out of here. No more secrets.” 

Stiles focused his eyes on him squinting a little in the low light. 

“Okay,” he breathed out. “No more secrets.” 

\--

“It’s called borrowing,” Stiles said wrapping his fingers around the mug of coffee he was holding. 

They’d all decided to go to Derek’s apartment because everyone wanted to hear just what was going on. Allison and Scott had first gone to get Allison cleaned up and Peter had disappeared presumably for the same purpose and then turned up at the apartment looking immaculate as usual but still smelling slightly of stagnant water. Derek hadn’t allowed Stiles further away from him than was absolutely necessary and he knew his pack was observing and drawing conclusions and couldn’t bring himself to care. 

No more secrets. 

Now Stiles was sitting on his sofa sandwiched between Scott and Derek with Allison sitting on Scott’s lap, even if she’d rolled her eyes in fond exasperation when he’d pulled her there. Apparently Scott had also taken the time to take the injured owl to Deaton who’d somehow been prepared for causalities, though admittedly not for the avian kind. 

“It’s a trick witches can do,” Stiles continued. 

Derek could see that it said nothing to any of his betas but he could see Peter watching the boy with sharp eyes and maybe a bit of pride. 

“What it means is that I sort of piggyback on the mind of an animal. I don’t take full control because I haven’t spent my entire life leaning how to fly or run on four legs or whatever. I’m just there and telling them what I want to do and I can use their senses to look at the world,” he continued smelling a little of embarrassment. 

“It seemed kind of cool,” he said. “Like if I could borrow a fox or something I could actually run with you some nights. See what you see and still stay essentially human.” 

“But you died when you did it!” Scott said sounding distressed. “How many times have you done it?” 

Stiles bumped his shoulder against Scott’s. “I don’t die. If any of you people with super senses had made the effort you would’ve realized I was still breathing and that my heart was still beating. It’s just that when my body is empty it goes into hibernation mode, for lack of a better explanation.” 

“And what are the side effects?” Derek asked because he knew better than to accept that magic came without a price. 

“Um,” Stiles said and looked at Peter who smirked and shook his head. ‘You’re on your own, kid.’

“Well… It’s not really dangerous but there are a few things to watch out for,” he admitted obviously knowing that whatever he said next would not go down well with the pack. “Like, if you spend too long out of your body you might forget how to come back.” 

“What,” Derek growled. 

“That wasn’t even a question,” Stiles had the nerve to protest. Then he caved under Derek’s glare. “Fine. Okay. I can see how that might be a little upsetting.” 

“A little?” Erica said her tone implying she thought Stiles was an idiot. 

The boy just made a face at her and she flipped him off. 

“It’s really not that bad. I’ve been trying it out just a few minutes at a time and I think I’m naturally good at it.” 

“The squirrel,” Boyd said. 

“That was funny, wasn’t it?” Stiles asked grinning like he’d just succeeded in a good prank. 

“That cat was you as well?” Derek asked. 

“Guilty as charged,” Stiles admitted. 

Trust Stiles to use potentially dangerous magic for something as juvenile as that. 

“There’s more to it than that,” Derek said realizing that he was allowing Stiles to deflect. 

Stiles gave him a look that said he knew he’d been caught. “Okay so when I come back to my body there are some aftereffects. Like after I was a cat I tried to lick myself clean before I realized what I was doing and I don’t know how you stand the memory of what small rodents taste like.” He shuddered. “And when I found the body of that woman I was borrowing a rat and they eat just about anything so…” 

Derek remembered finding Stiles nauseous after that. In retrospect it made sense. 

“Did you…?” Isaac asked face pale and tinted green. 

“No! I made the rat run off and then ditched that body like it was burning. I did not try to eat her!” Stiles protested vehemently. 

“And is that all?” Derek asked. “Or are you still hiding things?” 

Stiles didn’t immediately say anything, which was as good as confessing that he was still hiding something. 

“Better tell them, Stiles,” Peter said. 

Stiles sighed. “Well it’s not actually that likely to happen but when I’m borrowing I leave my body technically empty so…” he trailed off. 

“What he means is that something else might move in while he is gone,” Peter said uncaring of the glare Stiles was giving him. 

“Not likely to happen,” Stiles injected but cringed back under Derek’s look. “Well it isn’t,” he muttered defiantly. “And I saved you all today.” 

“He did,” Peter said sounding inordinately amused. “You can’t deny that, Derek. I wouldn’t have gotten close if he hadn’t done what he did.” 

“And I didn’t even get hurt in the process so you can’t even fault me that,” Stiles said. “I feel sorry for the owl though. That really really hurt.” 

“Deaton said he’ll do what he can,” Scott said. 

“Any other dangerous magic you’ve tried recently?” Derek asked feeling tired. 

Stiles shook his head. “Nothing much really that has worked for me.”

“So… Are we done now?” Stiles asked. “Only we should probably let my dad know what happened. Preferably without telling him about what I did.” 

Stiles had a point and as much as he wanted to keep him under supervision at all times until he was absolutely certain he wasn’t going to go and die he had to let them go. Erica and Boyd were the first to leave, together like always these days. Scott and Allison left with together and then he was left with Isaac, Peter and Stiles. 

“Are you crashing here tonight?” he asked the boy who nodded. 

He was technically in the foster system but he spent most of his time at Derek’s apartment and no one asked that many questions. 

“I need to go see the sheriff,” he said and ignored the look Peter gave him. 

Isaac nodded and it looked like even he knew an excuse when he heard it but knew better than to say anything out loud. Stiles, for once, didn’t look like he, too, knew what was going on in Derek’s head better than he did. 

“Come on, I’ll take you home,” he said to Stiles who just nodded. 

He’d let Scott take his jeep anyway so unless he walked he had no other way to get home. Peter followed them out of the apartment and outside. 

“Get in the car,” Derek said to Stiles. “I need to have a few words with Peter.” 

Stiles’ eyes narrowed in suspicion and he probably wouldn’t have given in even under the weight of Derek’s commanding glare if he didn’t still feel like he owed them all after the stunt he’d pulled that night. His eyes flickered toward Peter and Derek didn’t miss the slight nod his uncle gave that made Stiles roll his eyes and turn around and start walking towards the car. He had to swallow the almost reflexive growl down his throat. The mere idea that Peter might have more sway over Stiles burned. 

“Since when are you two on such friendly terms?” he asked. 

Peter cocked an eyebrow at him. “Since I let him have the books that told him what he could do with his magic,” he said. “I may not be able to work much magic but I thought it would be such a shame to let a spark like his go untrained.” 

“You let him do something that dangerous!” Derek hissed. 

Peter just smirked. “It’s hardly my business to hold him back when he’s obviously going to have his own way, no matter what. It’d be stupid to hold him back and this time babying him would’ve cost you your pack.”

“What are you trying to do?” he asked suspiciously because there was no way Peter wasn’t planning something.

“Trying to do? Nothing,” Peter said shrugging. “Like I said, I just don’t want to see him waste his talent. And even you must admit that it’s better if he knows how to use it before someone else finds a way to use it against him. Power that you don’t know how to use is more dangerous to you than to others.” 

And of course Peter would know exactly where to hit to get the results he wanted. 

“And what are you trying to do?” Peter continued turning shrewd eyes on him. “How long are you going to keep lying to yourself? Until he realizes that there is a big world outside of Beacon Hills and that whatever limitations held him back here won’t matter out there?” 

He wanted to deny everything. He wanted to tell Peter to mind his own business and keep away from Stiles. He wanted to say that he had no intentions at all towards the spastic 16-year-old kid who annoyed him like no one else. 

“No secrets,” Peter said not even bothering to hide his smug smirk. 

He’d never been the best at verbal sparring. He wasn’t slow or stupid but he didn’t have the skill to fire rapidfire responses to practically everything that Stiles had or the way to subtly undermine and manipulate as Peter. Perhaps that was why he’d been so poor at lying to himself as well. 

“As if it was that simple,” he grumbled not able to think of anything better. 

It was a perfectly valid response, though. He was far too close to a decade older than Stiles. Stiles was legally underage and would be for well over a year still. Stiles’ father was the sheriff and Derek couldn’t imagine he’d be happy about knowing his son was involved with Derek and not just because of him being a former suspect in more than one murder. 

And that wasn’t even touching on the fact that he didn’t actually know what Stiles wanted from him. Sure, he could pick up the spikes of arousal when Stiles was near him but that didn’t actually mean much coming from a teenaged boy. As far as he knew, Stiles was still very much in love with Lydia and his body finding Derek attractive wouldn’t mean he’d actually want to do anything with him. 

Why had he ever thought that associating almost solely with teenagers was even remotely a good idea? 

“Nothing worth anything in life is simple,” Peter said still looking far too pleased with himself. “Or something like that, but what I said still stands. You let him slip away and he’ll pine for a while, I’m sure, but he’s young and he knows how to bounce back. He’ll move on eventually and you’ll still be exactly where you were.” 

Derek bristled but couldn’t find the words to counter Peter’s argument. Werewolves didn’t have predestined mates. There was no ‘soulmate’ deal that meant he only had one chance at love. Werewolves were more prone to being monogamous but that was it. Back when he’d been an idiot teenager, he’d very much been in love with Kate, even if that love had been the painfully naïve kind. If he let Stiles go, there was nothing from stopping him from moving on, too, and finding someone else. But… 

“Let’s face it; the chances of you ever finding someone else who’s willing to put up with all of this and being like him are relatively low,” Peter said as if he could read Derek like an open book. “And the chances of him finding someone like you aren’t much better. It’s far more likely he’ll find someone who shares the worst parts of you and none of the better.”

He was controlling and impulsive and sometimes quick to resort to violence and the list of his bad qualities could go on and on and on. He didn’t want to think of Stiles, bright and lively and infinitely annoying as he was, with someone who with just those parts of him. Combined with the worst parts of Stiles it was an explosion waiting to happen. 

“So you’re saying I should do something just because of ‘maybe’s and ‘could be’s?” he asked. “And I still don’t see what your angle is in all of this?” 

Peter was still smiling and it looked like he wasn’t the least phased by Derek’s questioning. “Can’t I just want to see the last of my family happy?” he asked. 

He knew he was probably emulating his inner Stiles with the skeptical look he gave his uncle. “You’re going with that?” he asked. 

The look Peter gave him practically radiated ‘disappointed dad’ and seemed all the more wrong for it. 

“Must you always try to make me the villain?” he sighed with a touch too much drama. “But if you must have a reason for why I’m keen on keeping that boy in our pack is because it is ours. He’s clever and devious and growing into his power and an asset that any alpha would be stupid to lose. Do you think the alpha pack will be the last to challenge you for territory? Do you think that someone else won’t be happy to snatch him if we let him go without any sign that he’s ours?” 

“You tried to make Scott kill him,” Derek said. 

“Even I can be wrong sometimes,” Peter said dryly. “Plans change. People change.”

He almost asked if admitting that hurt, but ground his teeth together instead. 

“I know I don’t have the power to force you to do anything, you’re the alpha after all, but it’s something you should consider,” Peter said as if he was completely above manipulating Derek to do what he wanted anyway. 

But the thing about Peter was that he was good at finding other people’s weaknesses and ruthlessly exploiting them and sounding so convincing while he was doing it, it was difficult to not concede even when they were fully aware of what was happening. Derek knew that Peter was pushing him to claim Stiles and he knew that he was right about some things. 

It was too late to hope that Stiles would somehow be able to draw back from the supernatural world. Maybe it had still been possible when he’d just dabbled with mountain ash and whatever bits and pieces of magic that Deaton threw his way but now he was learning how to do witch tricks all on his own. Just because he was still human didn’t mean he wasn’t part of their world even without the werewolves. 

“How long are you going to talk?” Stiles shouted obviously grown bored of just waiting around like a good kid. 

Not that he’d ever been good. 

“I suggest you talk to him,” Peter said. “Talk to him and then actually _listen_ to what he says and what he’s _not_ saying. It’s not that hard.” 

Derek didn’t exactly need preternaturally good hearing to hear the faint undertone of mocking in his uncle’s voice. 

\--

“I didn’t do anything wrong, you know,” Stiles said when they were finally driving towards the sheriff’s house. “So you really have no right to be angry at me for saving you. Not when you almost gleefully jump into just about anything no matter what it might do to you. You might heal faster than I do but you’re not invulnerable.” 

Derek gripped the steering wheel tighter. The problem was that he was angry even if he acknowledged that Stiles was right. Anger was an easy familiar emotion and one of his faults was falling back on it whenever he felt helpless. Anger had been his anchor for so long it was hard to let go of it. 

“I had a plan going in,” Stiles continued not fazed by his fuming silence. “The plan was to distract the thing and create an opening for dearly departed uncle Peter and it _worked_. It worked better than your ‘plan’ ever had a chance to.” 

Just because he was right didn’t make what he said any less _wrong_ on some weird and probably completely illogical level. Derek knew that it had to do with his inability to lie to himself and Peter’s words and Stiles. Always always Stiles and it drove him half mad. 

“So you don’t get to be mad at me,” Stiles continued. “I know my own limits and I don’t want to die or get lost or whatever. You should know I’d never do that to my dad or you.” 

Derek almost wished the weird feeling in his chest was a first sign of a weak heart and not a reaction to Stiles’ words. The truth behind his words. 

“Your pack, I mean,” Stiles said but his cheeks had turned pink and he was worrying his lower lip between his teeth as if he’d just gotten caught doing something naughty. “Because you’d never survive without me and my brilliant plans.” 

Derek wondered if Stiles was more honest with himself or if he lied, too. Sometimes it was difficult to know with Stiles and it drove him mad trying to guess at what he might think. It was futile, of course, because he didn’t have a brain that could follow several different trains of though at the same time and make connections that seemed completely ridiculous at best, all of it moving at a breakneck speed. 

“I’m not mad at you,” he lied and knew Stiles didn’t believe him. 

“Right,” Stiles said dripping sarcasm. “So that’s why you look about five seconds away from ripping something to shreds.” A pause. “I’m not nominating myself for that, just so we’re clear.” 

It was hard to get any concrete clues to what Stiles was feeling or thinking by picking apart the smells he put out. It wasn’t an exact science by far and Stiles could be difficult to read when he was in one of his moods. If there was one thing he could tell, it was that Stiles wasn’t afraid. There was a stubborn set to his jaw but he was fidgeting, which usually signaled either agitation or just boredom. His body was tilted towards the car door and he was looking out of the window but his general body language didn’t exactly indicate that he wanted to be left alone. His eyes kept coming back to Derek but he’d always look away as if he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t. 

“I won’t hurt you,” Derek said keeping his eyes on the road but keeping his attention on Stiles. 

Eyesight was one thing that wasn’t improved when you were a werewolf because sight wasn’t nearly as important to wolves as it was to humans. His grandmother on his mother’s side had been almost blind but she’d always had a sense of smell so acute even other werewolves regarded her with a mix of awe and respect. 

“Yeeah,” Stiles said still sarcastic but everything else about him said something different. “No offence to you guys but you puppies aren’t exactly the most controlled bunch.” 

“I won’t hurt you,” Derek repeated slower as if speaking to a small child. 

“Yeah yeah,” Stiles grumbled but he smelled warmer with embarrassment and fondness. 

It was a good smell on him. 

“So is what Peter’s been saying to me true then?” Stiles asked suddenly. 

It took all of his control to not drive the car into a ditch. He did pull to a stop at the side of the road, however, breaking hard enough that Stiles body jerked against the seatbelt. 

“See this is why I was dubious about you saying you wouldn't hurt me,” Stiles muttered giving him a glare and rubbing at his chest. “Were you trying to crash the car? You really shouldn’t because it’s a beautiful car. Doesn't have as much personality as my baby, of course, but still a lovely specimen of engineering. Horrible mileage, though.” 

His heart was beating a little faster probably from the scare but his scent was, again, saying something else. 

“What has Peter been telling you?” he asked seeing the faint reflection of his own red eyes in Stiles’. 

He wasn’t ‘wolfing out’ but he was definitely trying to push his ‘alpha mojo’ on Stiles. God. He should really stop picking up phrases from teenagers. 

“A lot of things,” Stiles said and it was clear that he knew exactly what Derek was asking. “But you know him. He’s not exactly trustworthy.” He paused and looked thoughtful. “Though, after he came back he hasn’t actually been acting malicious towards us, which is a bit worrying considering I kind of helped set him on fire and you ripped his throat out. Oh crap! You don’t think he’s really planning something? Zombie apocalypse maybe?” 

“Stiles,” Derek growled, not in the mood to let Stiles prattle on about useless things. He rarely was in the mood but this time Stiles actually had the grace to listen to the ineffectual warning and shut his mouth with an audible click. “What has he been telling you?” 

He could practically hear the cogs turning in Stiles’ head as he went over the pros and cons of continuing to be annoying just for kicks or letting Derek steer the conversation where he wanted. Derek hoped that he’d be too tired after everything that had happened that day to be obtuse on purpose.

“He said you want me,” Stiles finally said. 

And Derek immediately wished Stiles had continued acting oblivious. Just because he’d expected Peter to be subtle and manipulative he hadn’t even considered that he’d be so blunt with Stiles. 

“He said that you want me in your pack,” Stiles continued and Derek felt both relieved and disappointed in equal measure, which confused him further. “And also that you want to claim me.” 

Of course Peter had said that. 

“Which sounds a bit dubious, if I’m completely honest,” Stiles said even as the perpetual scent of low grade arousal that surrounded all teenagers spiked sharply. “You can’t just go around _claiming_ people willy-nilly. And what does that even mean anyway?” 

“Do you want the dictionary definition?” Derek asked raising a brow but keeping his face otherwise blank. 

“Oh fuck you,” Stiles said but he sounded more fond than exasperated or angry. 

They both fell silent for moment but it didn’t take long before Stiles was fidgeting again smelling nervous but determined and Derek realized that there was probably no way he could get out of this confrontation. How had his life come to this? 

“So… Is it true?” Stiles asked. “Or was he just fucking with me?” 

He could keep lying. He could say that Peter was lying and that he had no desire to ‘claim’ Stiles in any other way than pack. Stiles would probably be a bit embarrassed at first but he’d get over it. As sad as it was, he was used to rejection. They’d go back to acting like they always did around each other and in a few years Stiles would go off to college. Life would go on. 

“Yes,” he said. 

Stiles looked surprised his mouth slightly open as if ready to say something in return to Derek’s denial. To be honest, Derek himself was surprised, not that he’d finally been honest about what he wanted, but how easy it had been to say. The world didn’t end. There was no one to punish him for wanting something except himself and he was so so tired of that. 

“I want to claim you,” he continued and a part of him enjoyed the deepening blush taking over Stiles normally pale face. “It means I want to dig my claws and teeth into you and cover you with my body until you smell like me. It means I don’t want anyone else even looking at you, much less touching you. It means I never want to let you leave my sight. It means wanting to touch every part of you, pick apart your brain and learn what makes you tick. It means wanting to be inside you until you won’t feel complete without me.” 

He wasn’t human. He’d never been human, which was something his pack probably didn’t fully understand, because they still remembered what it’d been like to be human. He wasn’t a wolf either, even when he looked more like one than human. He knew how to act like a human and he knew how to use the senses of a wolf but he was neither. There was a good reason why werewolves had always been monsters in fairy tales. Peter, for all his many and varied faults, understood that better than anyone left alive. 

“That’s…” Stiles started, swallowed noisily and stopped. 

Derek watched with avaricious eyes as a pink tongue quickly wetted plump pink lips. He was tired of acting like something he wasn’t. He was tired of lying and second guessing and having his authority questioned by teenagers who thought they knew everything. He was tired of pretending he didn’t want. 

“That’s really fucked up,” Stiles said finally. 

He wasn’t lying but his pupils were wide and black and his heart was beating faster. Prey, Derek’s animal brain said helpfully. 

“You asked me if Peter was telling you the truth,” Derek reminded him. 

He hadn’t moved any closer to Stiles or even moved his hands from the steering wheel. He was completely relaxed and as human as he could be. He felt lighter than he’d felt in a long long time. Now it was up to Stiles to decide what he wanted. 

“I didn’t exactly expect that, if I have to be honest,” Stiles said. “You do know that I’m still underage and that what you want from me is really really fucked up. I’m not kidding. If my dad heard any of that he’d lock you in for the rest of your life if he didn’t try to shoot you dead first.” 

Derek didn’t say anything. What Stiles was saying was true. 

“But see here,” Stiles said leaning closer eyes narrow and a clever little smile curling his lips up. “You just said that you won’t hurt me. Not that you _can’t_ hurt me but that you _won’t_. Even if you want to do all of what you just said to me, you won’t because even more than that you just want me safe.” He raised his hand to poke at Derek’s chest with his index finger. “I always knew you were really a huge softy inside.” 

He growled and let his eyes flash red but there was no stink of fear coming from the all too human boy. 

“So what you’re basically saying is that you’d very much want to date me and have permission to touch me,” Stiles continued. “That’s actually kind of cute.” 

“That’s not it,” Derek said. 

He didn’t know what he’d expected from Stiles when he finally told but he couldn’t help but feel a bit frustrated by Stiles’ interpretation. 

“I know,” Stiles said face almost odd in its seriousness. “I know. But this is how I deal. You know that. It’s just a lot to take in, you realize?” 

Derek didn’t bother to nod. 

“Because I’d kind of given up on thinking that someone might actually want me that much,” Stiles continued. “I mean, I didn’t think I’d never find a girlfriend or a boyfriend or anything like that. I may not be ridiculously good looking like practically everyone I know these days, but I’m kind of cute and even if my personality is kind of an acquired taste, there are bound to be people out there who’d appreciate me. But I thought it’d be… normal. Going on dates and wondering when is the proper time to kiss or make out or whatever and meeting their parents and being nervous and fighting and breaking up and whatever else normal relationships are made of.” 

“If I had you I couldn’t let you go,” Derek said because he knew honesty was the only option. “I would try, if you wanted me to, but I’d probably fail. We’d never have anything ‘normal’. I wouldn’t stop you from meeting other people but I’d want you to smell like me all the time. I’d be possessive and probably more than a little overbearing.” 

It wouldn’t look like a normal relationship from any angle because it wouldn’t be and he could only blame some of it on him being a werewolf.

“I kind of get that,” Stiles said. “But it’s still kind of huge.” 

“I wouldn’t try to control you,” Derek said. 

Stiles smiled at him. “I know.” 

Then, like it was the easiest thing in the world he reached out and leaned in to press his lips against Derek’s. 

The first thought to cross his mind was that for a boy, his lips were surprisingly soft and the second was that Stiles wasn’t a very good kisser. It made sense if the boy’s copious moaning about no one wanting him were to be taken seriously but Derek never had. Not really. Stiles wasn’t ugly, not by far, and while he wasn’t built like Derek he wasn’t actually that scrawny either. Derek suspected that his lack of girlfriend (or boyfriend) thus far was a complex result of being the sheriff’s kid, his difficult personality and the complex and utterly arbitrary social hierarchy of high school. It was also entirely possible that Stiles had ignored overtures from other people while he’d been smitten with Lydia. Erica was actually a good example of that. 

He carefully tilted Stiles’ head so that they weren’t smashing their noses together and kept the kiss light and soft. 

“We can’t do more than that,” Derek said when they separated. 

Stiles looked slightly daze and he was licking his lips, probably unconscious of his actions, and his normally pale face was flushed pink. 

“I know,” Stiles said. 

That was surprising. Derek had fully expected the boy to wheedle and whine and ask for more because there was no mistaking the sticky stink of arousal. Stiles was almost seventeen and mostly a normal young man and he’d made more than a few inappropriate comments about his own sex life, or lack of it, that Derek had expected him to jump straight into the deep end. 

“Don’t look so surprised,” Stiles said smiling dryly. “I’m underage. It’d be illegal for you to put your hands down my pants.”

Derek’s surprised look changed into one of incredulity. “ _You’re_ concerned about something being illegal? For someone whose father is the sheriff, you haven’t had much problem breaking the law more than once.” 

Stiles didn’t look nearly as amused by the observation. “This is different,” he said. “This time there’s no one else’s life on the balance. There’s no good reason. And besides all that, if we got caught it wouldn’t be me who’d be in trouble. Legally, I can’t consent and _you’d_ be a rapist. There’s nothing funny about that.” 

Derek just stared. 

“I mean it’s gonna seriously suck waiting for over a year and I’m pretty much thinking that you’ll get bored pretty soon but it’s still important. It’s not like I’ve lost the use of my hands or anything and if I keep remembering that there’s a prize at the end it’s not gonna be that bad,” Stiles continued the faint scent of embarrassment wafting from him but he didn’t sound uncertain. 

“You are…” Derek started but floundered, looking for words. 

Stiles shrugged unapologetically. “Hey. You told me your secret need to claim me so I’ll tell you I’ll be all that in a year and then some. I’m not asking you to put a ring on it first but, well, I’m expecting a hell of a party on my eighteenth just so you know.” 

“I’d wait,” Derek said. “I get it.” 

He remembered thinking that being with an older woman was hot and keeping it a secret from everyone just made it better. There was no question Stiles wanted him, his eyes were still blown back and he was squirming slightly in his seat, but for all his brattiness, he could be surprisingly mature at times, too. 

“I’m asking a lot from you so it’s probably a good thing you’ll have time to think about it and…”

“No!” Stiles interrupted him. “I’m not going to change my mind! I’m young and legally a child but I know my own mind. I won’t have you making decisions for me. Maybe if they have to do with the pack but not for anything else.”

He looked defiant and challenging and Derek loved him all the more for it. It wouldn’t be easy, any of it, and they’d probably end up fighting horribly at some point but he hoped that this was one thing he could keep. 

“Nevertheless,” he finally said. “I think it’s fair if we both remember that this isn’t binding either of us until we decide it is.”

Stiles’ body relaxed from the slight combative stance it’d taken and he grinned. “No more secrets?” he asked. 

Derek just hummed and started the car again. 

He kissed Stiles again, after making sure there was no one to see them and wondered if he was really allowed to keep something nice, as he drove away. He’d reached his apartment when his phone beeped to announce he’d gotten a text message. 

‘OMG. Do you think you can get carpal tunnel from jerking off too much?’

He groaned and let his head fall against the steering wheel. Forget ‘nice’, his life for the next year and a bit more was going to be hell. His lips twitched a little. Maybe he’d start lying to himself about how much he liked it. 

\--END--

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for not writing smut and giving you a conversation about consent instead.


End file.
